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This negative shows a brick fireplace in the John Bullen House. The house was located at 214 South State Street, Dover, Delaware. The wall near the fireplace has vertical, faux wood paneling.

This negative shows the front exterior at the John Bullen House. The building is brick with two chimneys. The windows and doors have shutters. This negative is a copy of a photograph from the John Bullen House's Historic Preservation Section 106 case file.

This negative shows a staircase in the John Bullen House. The house was located at 214 South State Street, Dover, Delaware. This negative is a copy of a photograph from the John Bullen House's Historic Preservation Section 106 case file.

This negative shows a document that provides the history of the John Bullen House. The house was located at 214 South State Street, Dover, Delaware. According to the document, a carpenter named John Bullen built the house between 1775 and 1781.

This negative shows the exterior of the John Dickinson House.

This negative shows the exterior of the John Dickinson House. A portion of the building's walls have collapsed.

This negative shows the exterior of the original John Ferris House on Tatnall Street in Wilmington, Delaware. This negative is a copy of a newspaper clipping from the Journal Every Evening printed August 8, 1914. The original photograph was taken by Royal Studio.

This negative shows the exterior of the John Dickinson House. A portion of the building's walls have collapsed.

This negative shows some of the historic buildings on the Dover Green. The John Bell House is visible, as is the clock tower on the Kent County Court House.

A defining feature of North Carolina is her geography. English colonists who founded the first settlements in the east adapted their old lifestyles to their new environs, and as a result, a burgeoning planter and merchant class emerged throughout the Tidewater and coastal regions. This eastern gentry replicated the customs, manners, and traditions of the Old World: donning the latest London fashions, hosting lavish balls, horseraces, and foxhunts, and erecting homes furnished with luxurious appointments. In the Piedmont, in what was then the western frontier, German and Scots-Irish immigrants streamed down the Great Wagon Road in search of similar opportunities. Theirs was a hardscrabble existence, forged from raw wilderness through sheer perseverance and self-reliance. Over time, members of the eastern gentry also drifted westward, looking to capitalize on their connections with the colonial legislature to establish a backcountry elite. These men, many of them corrupt, permeated local governments, occupying the offices of sheriff, clerk of court, and register of deeds—often simultaneously. They exerted their influence to collect excessive taxes, extort illegal fees, and conduct illicit land deals at the expense of unsuspecting settlers. When the backcountry immigrants grew weary of these “courthouse rings,” they organized to regulate provincial administration. Although the backwoods insurgents failed in their objective, state legislators addressed many of their grievances in 1776, incorporating Regulator proposals into North Carolina’s first constitution. The architecture of the period helps illustrate these two worlds—an eastern mansion reveals the luxury of the well-born, while a log cabin embodies western austerity—with each one symbolizing the social, economic, and political divides separating the classes.